by Mur Lafferty
“I don’t like leaving them just milling about there,” Freya said, frowning. “These are nasty mobs.” She considered the pigmen. “Well, most of them.”
“Better reason than any to stay away from them,” Alison said, nodding to Max. She realized it was the first time in forever that they had agreed on something. It felt nice.
They heard a strangled bark from the other side of the lava lake. Bunny Biter was trembling in her sit, clearly wanting to come to the aid of her master. But Freya had commanded her to stay, and she was a good wolf. It didn’t keep her from sitting still and barking furiously. Clearly she didn’t appreciate being left behind.
“Oh, dang wolf,” Freya said, sighing. “I told you to stay!” The wolf barked once more, and then howled.
The wither skeletons began to rustle more, and the pigmen edged away from them. Alison tried to figure out how tough that glass prison was.
“You go knock on the door,” Freya said. “I’ll stay here to keep an eye on the dumb wolf so she doesn’t do anything stupid, and watch those mobs for you.”
Alison and Max looked at each other once, united at last in their plan. Max put on the non-cursed parts of his armor, gave a tug at the stuck pieces just in case, and then sighed. They walked around the perimeter of the large mushrooms, keeping well out of the way of the wither skeletons, who stared at them from the shadows.
The tree house was a work of beauty. Alison felt a pang that it was in such a terrible place; it was a house worthy of royalty. A ladder stretched up the trunk of the obsidian pillar, leading to a porch and the front door. The manor itself sprawled through the crystal that grew in all directions. Small rooms connected by crystal corridors were hidden throughout, and Alison wanted nothing more than to explore the entire thing.
“This is amazing,” she whispered to Max as he mounted the ladder. “Do you think your Uncle Nicholas would let us have a tour before we take him home?”
“That’s what you’re thinking about right now?” Max said, looking down at her. “Unbelievable.”
“It’s a nice house!” she said hotly, and followed him up the pillar. “Don’t tell me you don’t want to explore it.” From the porch, they could see farther in the reddish glow of the Nether. They could see mobs wandering on the horizon, and distant lakes of lava. Bunny Biter barked from her side of the lake, outraged at being left out of the fun.
“Fancy houses don’t impress me, remember?” he said. “I’ve seen plenty. Although this does look like Uncle Nicholas’s work. It’s not like any of the fortresses we’ve seen.”
They walked toward the door. “Are you ready for this?” Alison asked.
He shrugged. “Ready for what? I’m just going to tell him I’m alive, and it’s time to come home.”
He turned from her, and she let him have his confidence, no matter how brittle that confidence was. He walked up to the door, his hand raised to knock, and he froze there.
Alison walked up behind him to see what he was staring at. There was a folded note attached to the door with two words visible:
GO AWAY.
NOT A USELESS SKILL AFTER ALL
“It looks like he doesn’t want to be found,” Alison said from over his shoulder, and Max felt his rage spike.
“That’s obvious!” he said hotly, ripping the note from the door. He knew he shouldn’t blame her, but he had to blame someone or he would go mad. He looked around wildly. “Is he spying on us? Why doesn’t he just show himself?”
He stomped to the edge of the porch, the note clutched in his hand. He glared into the distance, hoping to spot his uncle hiding somewhere nearby, even amid the wither skeletons under the mushrooms.
“Do you want to see inside the house?” Alison asked from beside the door.
“You really want a tour right now? We have to go after him!” he snapped.
“I was thinking of looking for any clues he may have left behind. At the very least we might find some supplies. We need to get back across that lava, remember,” she said calmly. “But it might be dangerous. We don’t know how long he’s been gone.”
“So?” Max said.
“We don’t know what has spawned in there in the meantime.”
“I’m pretty sure he put any spawn areas under those mushrooms, which is where those things came from.” He waved down at the giant mushrooms. “It’s something he would have done.”
“Doesn’t mean there can’t be more inside,” she said.
“Oh, do I have to do everything?” he snarled, and brushed past her to push the door open.
A crash sounded behind them, but Max couldn’t turn and see what had happened. He was frozen in fear, his eyes locking with the purple, blank stare of the enderman hovering just inside the door.
* * *
—
“Run!” yelled Alison, wheeling around and grabbing Max’s hand. She jerked him back just as the tall, lanky, black creature began to scream. Three more clustered behind it, and Max of course had to look at all three before allowing himself to be pulled away.
They rushed to the end of the porch, and Max had the wild idea to jump, but figured the fall or the lava would finish him off, so he turned quickly and slid down the ladder, Alison ahead of him. She jumped out of the way when she landed so he wouldn’t pile on top of her.
The endermen were waiting for them when they got down to the bottom. Max had forgotten they could teleport.
“Freya!” Alison called. “We need those potions!”
“And some help!” Max added as he took a swipe at one of the endermen with his golden sword. It teleported away easily, popped back next to him, and hit him with its arm. He felt the armor take the blow, but it knocked him backward, and he stumbled to catch up with Alison.
“Freya!” he called in desperation, and he saw his friend not paying attention to them at all, but dashing in their direction, wither skeletons and the once-docile pigman mobs enraged and pouring out of a hole in the prison behind her.
“Freya what did you do?” Max asked. “They weren’t bothering anyone!”
“I was mining some blocks, accidentally saw an enderman, it hit me, I fell into the glass, the pick broke through, I accidentally made a hole. I must have hit a pigman because they got mad. So I ran.” Once the trio was together, Freya switched their direction, leading Max and Ali toward the edge of the lava lake. “Bunny Biter, come!” she shouted, and the wolf was at her side with a joyful bark. Max wished briefly that crossing the lava lake could have been that easy for all of them. Freya stopped at the lava’s edge and started putting blocks of netherrack at the edge of the lake. “Max, do you have any mined blocks with you?”
Max thought quickly, taking stock of what was in his bag. “Yeah, some, why?” he asked.
Alison caught on before he did. “Make a bridge? Why not just get back the way we came?”
“Max has cursed armor, we don’t have much fire protection potion left, we can’t fight while we’re in lava, and we need to get moving now,” Freya said. She looked at Max. “Alison said you were good at building on the fly?”
He nodded, understanding. Oh, they want a tower for safety! That’s what they’re talking about.
“Yeah, I can do that!” Max said, and started grabbing granite blocks from his pack. He tossed one on the ground and then another one on top of it, then jumped onto the short stack. He jumped up again and placed another block under his feet.
“Build OUT!” Ali shouted, pointing at the far shore. “Build a bridge, dummy!”
Max cursed at himself and modified the direction he was moving in. Building out quickly was harder than building up, but with the threats behind him, he was inspired. He angled himself just right and placed a block down, pushing forward. The girls jumped up behind him, covering the rear, as he built three blocks high over the lava.
“Alison, with me,
” Freya said. They took guard positions behind Max to keep the mobs off them. Max was placing blocks as fast as he could, moving out onto the lake as his bridge got longer.
“Alison, aim for the hole, get the ones coming out. I’ll get the free ones,” Freya said.
“Got it,” Ali said grimly.
Max turned to see Freya shoot an arrow at the closest enderman. It teleported away, which he expected, but when it disappeared, the arrow skewered the enderman directly behind it. It took the arrow full force, staggering backward.
“That’s one way to do it,” Ali said, sounding impressed.
Now that he was out over the lava, creating a bridge two blocks wide, he had vivid memories of a short time before when he was in the lava when the fire protection wore off. He slowed down, placing the blocks a little more carefully. He ran out of granite and switched to dirt, not daring to look in his pack to see how many blocks he had left.
An enderman teleported beside him, and Max nearly leaped back, which would have been a disaster for him, Freya, or both. But he remembered where he was—and what was all around them—and stood his ground. He planted his feet and swiped at the enderman with his sword, and it flailed backward and into the lava, where it twitched once and teleported away.
“It won’t try that again,” said Max, grinning. Then he stopped grinning. Bone Bane, his precious sword, clattered down and skidded to the edge of the bridge. He reached out for it, but then saw that it had broken. I guess gold wasn’t as strong as I’d thought.
He chanced a look back. The panicked pigmen were milling about, no longer a threat, but some of the wither skeletons had pushed through the pigmen to pursue them. They joined the kids on the bridge, chasing them down.
“I think I’m going to need that sword of yours, Max!” Alison called, loosing arrows at a mad clip. The skeletons were still getting closer.
“I do too!” he said. “But it’s gone.”
“Gone? What do you mean?”
“Gone! Broken! No work anymore!” he said, and looked in his bag to see if he had packed any backup weapons. Then he froze. The only things in his bag were a pickaxe and the note he’d found on the door. Not only did he not have spare weapons, he didn’t even have any more blocks to build with.
He thought fast. They were only a few blocks’ distance from the shore, but he knew even a little time in lava could be the end of him. “Freya, I’m coming back toward you, but I’ll stay low.”
“All right,” she said, still sounding calm even with death screaming behind them, and sizzling under them. She adjusted her stance as he got down on all fours and crawled up to her feet. The mobs were only about a dozen blocks away, and closing fast even with the girls shooting down the ones in front.
“I need more blocks,” he explained as he chopped away at the bridge between them and Nicholas’s island. “We might need to make this narrower.”
“I guess you’re good with balance?” Freya said, scooting to the right when Max took the block to her left.
“I’m great at it,” he said, “but I’ve never tried it over lava.” The dirt block he had just removed crumbled and fell into the lava with a hiss.
Freya stowed her bow and took out a diamond sword. She handed it to Alison. “He needs help,” she said, and got out her own pick. She made short work of a block of granite and tossed it to Max. He caught it, embarrassed. “Let me dig, you build,” she suggested, and he nodded, cheeks burning.
* * *
—
Alison furiously swung the diamond sword, thinking she’d much rather have her bow. But Freya had been right; this was better for close quarters. She held off the mobs, swinging to keep them away more than damage them. She knocked a few pigmen and wither skeletons into the lava. The pigmen squealed and disappeared, the wither skeletons just glared at her. They couldn’t reach her now, and she couldn’t kill them with lava, so they were at an impasse.
The endermen she just waved her sword at. She couldn’t have hit them anyway, but at least she could keep them out of range.
Behind her, Freya and Max had narrowed the last five blocks of the bridge to just one block wide, and added the blocks they’d removed to the end, bringing the bridge closer to shore. They still weren’t close enough. “Now what?” asked Freya, directly behind Alison.
“Take the bridge away,” Max said. “Then they can’t follow us.”
Alison took one more swipe at a wither skeleton and jumped backward, switching to her bow when she landed. She kept shooting as Freya bent down to take the block of the bridge that Alison had just vacated. They worked that way, with Alison shooting and stepping backward toward Max, Freya taking the block from under her feet and tossing it to Max, who slowly built them toward the shore.
“Will the endermen follow us?” Alison asked.
“I don’t think so. They got distracted by the lava and the other mobs, just like I’d hoped,” Freya said. “Bunny Biter didn’t hurt either.”
Max got the bridge two blocks away from the shore and jumped to safety, tumbling to the ground, exhausted as his adrenaline gave out. The girls fell beside him, Bunny Biter teleporting in from Max-didn’t-know-where, but she carried a stone sword between her teeth and looked very pleased with herself.
“Let’s not do that again,” Alison said, panting and staring into the red sky and rubbing her right wrist. “That wasn’t fun at all.”
Most of the enemies had disappeared due to the rain of arrows, or had fallen into the lava, and those that hadn’t had returned to the island. The endermen wandered the shore, teleporting to and from the tree house porch, acting as if the three kids hadn’t even been there at all.
“So, how was the visit with your uncle?” Freya asked.
* * *
—
It hurt Alison to see Max’s face when he saw the note was actually meant for Freya. But what did he expect? Nicholas thought he was dead. Still, Max paled and frowned when he saw Freya’s name at the top of the note, and then handed it to her wordlessly.
She read it aloud:
“It sounds like he won’t come with us even if we do find him,” Alison said, grabbing the note from Freya. “Hey, you didn’t finish reading. There’s a P.S. here.”
Click here to view a transcript of this text
“Oh,” Max said. “Maybe we should have read that note first.”
Alison couldn’t help herself. She started to laugh. Then she grimaced. “I think you should look at something for me,” she said to Freya. “I didn’t think it was a big deal, but…”
She held out her right arm, showing her wrist where it peeked out of her armor. There was a wound there; it wasn’t a deep, worrisome cut, but even a shallow cut shouldn’t look black and puckered around the wound.
“Did one of the wither skeletons hit you?” Freya demanded, pulling Alison’s armor off so she could get a better look.
“Yeah, but it wasn’t a bad cut, I barely felt it. It was right after I’d removed that last block to give to Max. I didn’t think it was—”
“—a big deal, yeah, you said,” Freya said, frowning. “That was a wither skeleton, Alison. Don’t you understand what that means?”
“I’m starting to get an idea,” Alison said, fighting the urge to rub her arm again. It ached deep into the bone, and she was experiencing a weariness that felt much deeper than it should have.
Freya rummaged around in her pack. “One more fire protection vial. Two more healing potions. A few others…No, I don’t have any.”
“Any what? Why not just give her the healing potion?” Max asked.
“Because that would be a waste. It would make her feel better but not heal what’s hurting her, and she’d get sick again and then we’d be out a potion,” Freya said impatiently.
“Milk,” Alison said softly.
Freya nodded. “Yeah, milk w
ill negate the effects. But I don’t have any on me, and cows aren’t really found wandering in the Nether. Not even mooshrooms. I may have some back at the fortress.”
Max glanced back at his uncle’s tree house. “I guess going back to see if Uncle Nicholas left any behind would be suicide.”
Freya glared at him as her answer. “We can go back to my base, and lose whatever ground we’ve gained on Nicholas, or we could go forward and hope he has a solution once we find him.”
Alison glanced down at her arm. “How long do I have?” Her eyelids were drooping.
Freya examined the wound again. “I’d say about half a day,” she said.
“I need rest,” Alison said. She lay down with her head on her pack and closed her eyes.
“No, no, Ali, we gotta get up. We only have half a day, like she said.” Max put his hands under her armpits and heaved her to her feet. She grunted in annoyance.
“Come on, Ali, you can do this,” he said. Freya got under one of her arms on one side and Max took the other, but she shook them off. Max was right. She could do this.
* * *
—
After a few hours, they all took a rest. Ali dozed off immediately while Max and Freya studied the letter for more clues.
“What do you think it meant that he is taking his exile even farther away?” Max asked. He was settling Ali’s head on his pack to make her more comfortable. “What’s farther than the Nether?”
Freya glanced at Max as if to gauge whether he could handle the truth of what she was about to say. “It’s not quite the farthest you can go,” she said. “There’s one more place beyond here. It’s called the End. It’s where the endermen come from, and the ender dragon. It’s hard to get there, and even harder to get back.”
Max rifled through Ali’s pack, a mushroom stem sticking out from his mouth; he chewed on it thoughtfully. He grabbed more mushrooms for Ali to eat when she woke up. She’d need her strength. Well, she really needed milk. But food would have to do for now. He felt distant and sad, as if he weren’t a part of this journey anymore. It had become too big for him.